J. Smith
8.17.25
The Cold Beginning: Opening in the arctic is an unknown space to most readers. Beginning in
such an unknown place can be alluring and brings readers in as within the Victorian times there
was a lot of exploration to be going on (ex: birding and capturing exotic birds and plants- the
idea of extreme naturalism in Victorian times).
The Beauty’s “Discovery”: This is where Victor’s family first meets Elizabeth, having
“discovered” her in a poor family and deciding to adopt her. Like many naturalists within the
Victorian Era, they tended to lean towards a capture of unknown creatures as they were
unfathomably beautiful unlike anything they had seen, just as Victor’s family saw about
Elizabeth.
The Creation: Victor first goes to school here, learning from the professors in a fervor to gain
more knowledge. This is also where he creates the monster for the first time- Both in awe and
fear, he abandons it. There has been similar scenarios of people in the Victorian Era doing
something similar, creating things like automatic singing bird cages for the sake of creation.
Consequences of Creation: Victor is to make another creature for the monster, so he may love it
in all of their shared grotesque ways. This is like how people wanted to create some fantastical
show and display of unknown discoveries, yet they are not truly what they have seen.
Death: The creature chooses to kill itself after its only relative (victor) dies on the boat.
Extinction of species upon discovery. Like many species of the time, there was desolation and
even extinction that followed the raid that was Victorian naturalism.
J. Smith
8.17.25
I chose to mainly focus on the aspect of extreme naturalism when it came to the Victorian
Era. Fads such as Fern Fever, Oology, and Specimen Hoarding caused irreparable damage to
various environments where people of this time had come in to study the local fauna. When
creating my map of the story, the way Victor’s family travelled around Europe when he was
younger reminded me of how naturalists would explore to find novel species and specimens. One
example that tied in this idea was when the family had ‘found’ Elizabeth. She was a novel beauty
to the family, and being taken back to their home in Geneva reminded me of how people did the
same with exotic birds or plants.
To me, the monstrosity is misunderstood. The creature is fresh and new into this world,
immediately hit with abandonment upon their own creation. For the context of Victorian’s and
extreme naturalism, the monster is aligned with the identity of species that had been newly
discovered, and pillaged for their identity. The monster was this novel thing to Victor, one that he
could not stand and therefore left it to its own devices. To the Victorians, exotic birds and other
species were novel, both Victor and naturalists had caused damage to the thing they found
fascinating, even if they had not known they were doing it.
There are overlaying themes of unchecked ambition within this novel, especially with
Victor’s creation of the monster. The creature asking for a lover also follows this, as it gives
Victor this god-like disposition where he is urged to create. For naturalists of the time, this
unchecked ambition runs wild as they begin to strip the world of resources and expansion. New
fashion accessories had been established with the inflow of things such as feathers. All the
ambition around creation is shared between this era as well as with Victor’s ambition with the
monster.
The book starts within the arctic, closing there as well. For the era this book has been set
in, there is a romantic wonder about the icy wasteland. It’s fitting to have the start there, as it’s a
wonder that can draw people in. Much like the monster with Victor, there is a wonder that
captivated him: the creation of life. Both of them held a darker shadow than what was first seen
to the eye. The monster at first, was made in the name of science to prove it could be done, a
reach for the new field of science. Like the creature, the arctic too was new and exciting; a land
that could be newly discovered for those who wanted to venture north. The more known both of
these things had been, the darker they became to those discovering them.
In all, the novel seemed to share similar ideologies with the Victorian naturalists of the
time, both wanting to find this new and incredible thing to showcase to the world, or themselves.
Both had a reach to discover, but both inevitably did harm to the environments they were around.
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